At the end of January, the world’s leaders convened on the global stage to discuss the pressing challenges facing people and the planet at the 50th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. With the main conversation focusing on sustainability, businesses discussed corporate purpose beyond profit and initiatives that can be implemented globally to improve the future state of the world. The theme of the 2020 meeting was ‘Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World’, making it more apparent than ever that collectively we must join forces to reduce our impact on the planet.
As we entered a new decade and the year began, Australia suffered some of its worst fires, Jakarta flooded, while Norway recorded its warmest day ever in January. We have felt the Earth getting hotter, seen the ice melting, and witnessed the rising oceans filling up with plastic. We’re losing species, building up greenhouse gases, and changing the future of the planet at a tremendous pace. While an increase in environmental catastrophes has contributed to higher awareness and more action being taken globally by brands to reduce their impact on the environment, it is clear that we cannot operate in isolation to reduce our impact. By facing the complexities of the world we live in together, we can address the economic, environmental, social, and technological challenges and join forces to become a major powerhouse in collectively reducing our impact on the world.
Reflecting on the key learnings from the Davos, we explore what brands can do in the lead up to meeting the growing demands of sustainability, socially as well as environmentally. While climate change is the biggest environmental threat to humanity, there are many others that have received large publicity in recent years. Davos 2020 tackled some of the major threats to biodiversity on land and in the sea, including plastics pollution which is an issue we strive to tackle at Pelorus with various initiatives supporting sea life diversity. With guest appearances and speeches from Al Gore, Greta Thunberg, and others, what did we learn about sustainability from the world’s leaders?